Derek Evely graduated from Burnaby Central in 1983. During his years there, Ken Taylor passed his passion for track and field onto Evely. The young man blossomed into a decathlete, finishing sixth in the event at the 1983 World Junior Championships. In 1992, Taylor invited Evely to be his assistant.
The result was yet another provincial team title for the Wildcats, and a coaching guru was born. Evely eventually made his base in Kamloops becoming a national team coach at several international competitions including the Commonwealth (1998), Pan American (1997) and Olympic (2008) games as well as three world championships.
He was Athletics Canada’s national team relay coach (2001-2005) and the lead coach at the national sprint centre (2006-2009). Evely went on to run the United Kingdom’s national performance centre (2009-2012) and coached at the 2012 Olympics in London. His athletes have set 13 national records.
Eight have earned 33 national team positions and 10 have won 39 national titles. Four of his athletes have collected 13 international medals.
